Create a Laughing Face Emoji Photoshop Tutorial

USE THIS TECHNIQUE TO CREATE ANY EMOJI WITH PHOTOSHOP! | We’ll take a look at building out an Emoji like you would find on a current iOS device using Layer Styles and Paths in Photoshop.

In this Photoshop tutorial, we will create a series of shapes and build the base of any emoji face that you would find on an iOS device at the time I made this tutorial. After creating the base that you can use for any emoji face, we will create a series of paths and convert them to shapes and use Layer Styles to make the whole series of shapes look like a real, as-you-would-expect iOS emoji. We will create the laughing emoji face.

Cmd/Ctrl + J to duplicate that original ellipse and right-click on the layer and choose to “Clear Layer Styles” to get this back to a yellow circle.

Open the layer styles dialog and delete all additional Inner Shadows that remain

Change fill of this new circle to any color

Open the Properties panel and set width to 900px and height to 950px and then Cmd/Ctrl + click the layer thumbnail for the bottom circle to load it as a selection and align this new circle to the bottom and the center of the circle.

Reduce the new circle layer’s Fill Opacity to 0%

Add a Gradient Overlay to this layer using a transparent to white gradient and drag the transparency stop in the gradient over near the middle of the gradient, set to 85% opacity with a 90º angle.

Find a copy of the emoji you wish to copy online and save that image to your computer

Drag the emoji into Photoshop and use Free Transform to scale it up and place it over the base face we’ve already created.

Use the Pen tool and trace half of the mouth and then use the Path Selection tool to duplicate and flip the mouth horizontally.

Select both paths and create a new solid color layer and set the fill to #9e6a1c

Trace one of the eyes and select that path and create another solid color layer and sample the color from the mouth.

Trace one of the eyebrows and select that path and create another solid color layer and once more sample the color of the mouth.

Duplicate the eye and the brow and use Free transform to flip these shapes to mesh with the other side of the face.

Name all these layers to keep track of them!

Create an ellipse that is 190x190px and drag and place it over where the tear is.

Use the Direct Selection tool to select the anchor point on top and drag it upward until it is almost at the bottom corner of the eye.

Grab the Convert Point tool hidden under the Pen tool and single click the top point that we just pulled out to make this a sharp point. Tweak this anchor point to add a little bit of rounded-ness to it using the Convert Point tool.

Convert this to a shape layer with any fill color and then…

Duplicate the tear shape and fill it with white (this will be the highlight inside the teardrop) and use Free Transform and scale down the tear shape and move it up near the point from where the tear is originating

Next, select both shapes and use Free transform to rotate it over so the tip of the “tear” is near the bottom left of the eyeball shape

Duplicate the both tear shapes and flip to the other side of the face

Grab the Pen tool and trace the teeth shape in the emoji we’ve overlaid to create that final shape we need.

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Nathaniel Dodson: I am a young web designer and commercial photographer specializing in music, business, and athlete portraiture. I am a young and energetic individual who has been working in the design and creative field since I first started dabbling with Photoshop in year 2000.